


Oh Brother, I Think I Found My Soulmate!!

by 5s Old Stuff (5557)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, Action, Adventures, Alternate Universe - Canon, Autistic Keith (Voltron), Falling In Love, First Kiss, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, Loneliness, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, autistic lance, boys being dumb, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 12:37:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9323912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5557/pseuds/5s%20Old%20Stuff
Summary: This was it. It was real. He could feel it.Keith stared down at the brown sun-shaped mark on the inside of his bicep. He ran his fingers over the delicate spot for the thousandth time that day and he felt goosebumps prickle the skin of his shirtless body as he stood in front of the bathroom mirror.He didn’t know when it had finally happened, he just knew that he knew. He’d found his soulmate.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tell_tale_heart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tell_tale_heart/gifts).



> I hate this story, I'm never going to update it, and I just want to delete it.

This was it. It was real. He could feel it.

Keith stared down at the brown sun-shaped mark on the inside of his bicep. He ran his fingers over the delicate spot for the thousandth time that day and he felt goosebumps prickle the skin of his shirtless body as he stood in front of the bathroom mirror.

He didn’t know when it had finally happened, he just knew that he knew. He’d found his soulmate.

Since he was born, Keith had a soulmark. A indication, a constant annoyance and a tiny flare of hope, telling him that there was someone out there waiting for him in the universe. A promise that if he stayed alive and awake, eventually he wouldn’t be alone anymore.

Keith sighed as he removed the rest of his clothes and stepped into the shower. Dried blood washed away from his bruised body though thankfully, most of it wasn’t his own. Another successful strike against the Galra empire led them one step closer to a free universe. Each battle was a life or death risk and yet somehow Keith couldn’t see himself doing anything else. His world had meaning now. And he had Lance.

It was rough, at first, especially with both of their competitive nature getting in the way, but somehow it made them both better. The desire to one-up each other made them train harder, push further, and take on more work. In the end, after all the episodes of petty bickering and slowly getting to know one another, they stopped pushing against one another, and started pushing for each other. And they were better off for it.

As Keith mindlessly washed away the day’s sweat and grime and blood, lathered suds floating down his arm, sliding over the purple-brown sun on his bicep, he knew he would have to take the risk and approach Lance.

You see, there was a catch. You could never talk about it. If you tried to mention your soulmark to the wrong person, the spell would be broken. You might lose whatever chance at happiness you had if you just threw yourself out into the world chasing after anyone you thought you might like. No. It had to happen naturally. Slowly. And in time, you would just know.

And Keith knew, now. After so much time, he just knew.


	2. The Boy That Kept Staring

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! Editing all done! I added about 1k words total to this chapter. I'm sorry I've been really tired and overworked lately. I have a lot of great things in store!

Keith suspected he knew it was real the moment he and Lance first met at the Garrison. Looking back, he was embarrassed at how they’d actually crossed paths the first time. It wasn’t under the best of circumstances, truth be told.  
  
On his first day at the Galaxy Garrison, Keith was a pressure cooker of nervous excitement and apprehension. He, and a hundred other young hopefuls had been accepted into the prestigious institution to eventually become future scientists, engineers and explorers of the solar system. Keith was going to realise his dream of becoming a pilot.  
  
Keith sat in one of the middle rows while the staff gave wordy lectures about strength and perseverance and ingenuity. Keith listened to parts of it, but his gaze kept drifting over to the side of the auditorium where Shiro sat, staring back at him and pointing to whoever was speaking. “Pay attention,” his subtle nod was saying. Keith sighed and turned back to face the stage. And he met a pair of blue eyes staring back at him from two rows ahead.  
  
Between the many sandy, tawny, black and blonde heads of hair, those eyes shot right back at him, piercing him. They were clearly looking at him, weren’t they? He couldn’t tell if they were suspicious, or curious. And then, just as soon as they’d appeared, the boy they belonged to turned around, shifted his body behind the rows of students between them, and was gone.  
  
It kept happening.  
  
In his first class, Keith sat himself near the back, by the window, strategically able to look out and watch the upperclassmen launch their craft and practice flight exercises over the base. Every launch filled Keith with a thrill of excitement and yearning. Every day brought him closer to getting in the air. And then, there were the eyes.  
  
Those eyes from three rows in front and one to the side. Blue and staring at him, and always flicking away when he knew Keith was looking. Outside of class, Keith saw that he did speak. A lot, in fact. To his friend who always sat beside him, and to anyone who happened to give him the slightest bit of extended attention. But never to Keith. He only stared. Every time Keith turned back from the window, resigning himself to concentrate a little harder on his theory work before he got into a cockpit, he felt those eyes on him. And he’d look over, and the eyes would flick back to the front of the room and disappear like a trick of the light; only ever visible if you weren’t looking directly at them.  
  
Keith refused to let himself be bothered. Whatever problem that kid had with them, he could tell it to his face.  
  
  
He never did.  
  
  
Shiro visited him frequently in the first couple of months, just to make sure Keith was adjusting well to the rigid environment. Far from there being any issues, Keith actually excelled when his day was structured and he didn’t have to worry about unexpected changes to his schedule. The rhythmic pattern of classes and practical training exercises were exactly the thing Keith needed to hone his turbulent mind and hyper-reactive senses.  
  
Keith juggled the embarrassment at being related to a junior officer with the gratitude of having someone who knew everything about the Garrison available to him. The other students would often ask Keith for test answers or hints as to what was coming up in class, but Keith would only shrug. Shiro hardly ever gave him anything beyond patronizing philosophical advice.  
  
“If there’s anything else you need, don’t hesitate to ask me,” said Shiro from the doorway of his dorm, “Don’t worry about special treatment. I’m here to assist all the first years if they have any questions or problems.”  
  
What could he say? That some boy was always staring at him from the corner of his eye? And then he’d turn away if Keith caught him looking? It wasn’t exactly the worst case of bullying Keith had ever experienced. He just didn’t know what to make of it.  
  
“I’m fine,” he said. And for the most part, it was true.  
  
Shiro left his dorm and Keith rubbed at the mark on his bicep, circling his thumb habitually over the brown sun-shape and wondering what any of it could mean.

* * *

  
  
It wasn’t until six months into his education at the Galaxy garrison that they actually spoke.  
  
Keith and all the other first-year piloting students were in basic vehicle training. They’d graduated out of the simulators and each student was given an old training hovercraft that moved slowly and wouldn’t rise above ten feet in the air. The purpose of the exercise was to attune the students to a real vehicle’s mechanics instead of constantly relying on simulation, to bolster communication and teamwork and, Keith secretly considered, to pick out potential star pilots to watch for.  
  
It all started out well enough, and the five junior pilots were flying in good formation, following the robotic instructions spat out from the com panel into their radios or lit up on the HUD. Instructions to turn left or right, or check to see the location of your fellow pilots around your profile and adjust course if you were getting too close. Keith was the centre of their arrow formation, the leader as chosen by random computer drawing and not the special treatment he’d overheard in whispers from his other classmates. He was flanked by two pilots on each side, and one of them, surprisingly enough, was the boy with the blue eyes. Lance was his name, he’d learned, and Keith wasn’t wrong about him seeming to have a beef with him.  
  
This kid seemed to hate every idea he had, shot down every command that he made as squad leader, and sighed audibly over the radio when Keith told everyone with a voice shaking with nerves that they were all doing a great job.  
  
What was he doing wrong?  
  
Keith’s radio crackled to life as their instructor’s voice came through, congratulating them on a successful course navigation, and ordering the group to slowly turn around and complete the loop back to the launch pad.  
  
That was when Lance took off.  
  
He pulled away from the edge of the formation as the five pilots turned their last corner around the designated virtual obstacle and kicked his hovercraft into a higher gear, cruising ahead of the pack.  
  
“Hey! Number four! We’re supposed to stay in formation!” Keith’s second pilot, Claire, shouted over the comm.  
  
Lance didn’t reply. He continued to fly at top speed back towards the launch area. It was Keith’s job to look after his squad. He was the one repeating the instructions the machine spat out while the officers watched from the flight tower and monitored their performance in the ships. Would he be a bad leader if he let this go? Keith didn’t want to find out.  
  
“I, um, I order you to get back here!” Keith’s voice cracked as he spoke and he knew none of his teammates could possibly take him seriously. “I’m your squad leader!”  
  
“Nothing doing, squirt leader,” said Lance, “Exercise is over. I think I’m gonna see what this baby can do.”  
  
Great. An asshole and a maverick.  
  
Keith was wracking his brain for something more impressive or effective to say that would stop this idiot in his tracks, but the more he stumbled, the further Lance pulled away in his gunmetal grey hovercraft. Keith was quickly losing his patience. This wasn’t what they were supposed to do in training!  
  
“Hey Keith,” Lance’s voice taunted through the radio, “Watch this!”  
  
Lance suddenly braked and his vehicle started drifting in a playful arc over the gravelly sand of the empty practice field. Why wasn’t their commander reacting to this… this insubordination!? Couldn’t they see that Lance had pulled out of formation? Was Keith going to be punished for not keeping Lance in line?  
“Pretty cool, huh?”  
  
Lance was seriously starting to grate on his nerves. But before Lance realised he hadn’t shut of his radio, the entire squad heard him mumble, “I bet you’ve never done anything like that before, kiss-ass.”  
  
“What did you just call me?” Keith spat.  
  
“Nothing! I didn’t say anything!” Lance’s voice shot back, high and tight and clearly embarrassed.  
  
“No, you called me a kiss-ass.”  
  
“Yeah, well you always get special treatment from your brother! That’s why you got picked for squad leader in our group!”  
  
“That’s not true!” growled Keith, not even fighting back his irritation, “I got picked because I aced the pre-test!  
  
“Yeah, and who helped you? Your perfect junior officer brother?”  
  
“Nobody helped me!” screamed Keith, “I studied!”  
  
That did it. He wasn’t going to take the insult to him and Shiro lying down. Keith had learned a few things from Shiro since he joined. He’d learned to study the backs of the manuals first because they had all the important information. He’d learned that he had to get to lunch as early or else all the butterscotch pudding would be gone. And he’d learned that every training hovercraft had a fully capable engine that was handicapped for student use. And there were codes that one could enter into the system to enable them year by year.  
  
Lance was flying ahead of their group, cruising at 70 kilometers per hour through the desert and still several kilometers away from the landing pad where they were supposed to return. He was veering in a slow curve, trying to get as much height as possible in his first-year craft and pushing the crippled engine as hard as he could.  
  
Time for a lesson. Keith punched in the access codes for a fourth year vehicle and immediately his engine roared to life. He broke out of formation and shot ahead like a rocket, kicking up an enormous trail of dust behind him as the engines powered forward.  
  
“Squad leader, what are you doing?” Claire shouted into her radio as the other three pilots struggled to stay together and keep up with the two rogue team members.  
  
He didn’t know what he was doing. He wasn’t thinking. When Keith was in a vehicle, he didn’t think. He just turned his mind off and flew. He let his instincts take over and react, his grip of the steering and the wind against his face making him feel more alive than he’d ever felt on the ground.  
The comm onboard started beeping angrily. He was moving too fast and too far out of bounds. He knew Lance was hearing his own warning, duly ignored as the other boy continued to veer far off course and cruise as high as he could. He’d catch up, get Lance back in formation and shut off the activation codes before anyone was the wiser. At least, that was the general plan.  
  
The blaring cut off as a voice came through Keith’s comm “Squad leader, is this an error? Your vehicle is not permitted to be travelling that fast. You are heading out of bounds. Please turn around and head back to launch for inspection and debriefing.”  
  
“Hey! How’d you get up on my rear so fast?” Lance wasn’t just annoyed, he was surprised as Keith blew past him, tilting his craft into a swerve to blow a gust against Lance’s left side, jostling his ship.  
  
Turn back. He was supposed to turn back. He knew it.  
  
“Look, blue eyes,” said Keith, gunning the engines, “Would a kiss-ass do this?”  
  
He was supposed to be getting Lance back in formation. He was supposed to be acting like a leader. But speed was a drug to Keith and Keith was an addict. He ignored the direct orders from the commander coming in through his helm radio. He tuned out the blaring alarm from the hovercraft. Keith peeled away from the pre-plotted training course area and headed down the gravelly desert plain, straight towards the one place he’d been dying to get to since he was accepted into the program. The ravine.  
  
“Oh, some real obstacles, huh? I’ll see you there!” Lance pulled away from his spinning doughnuts to chase after him down the slope.  
  
“First year squadron pilots one and four, you are out of bounds and have exceeded speed limits for your exercise. Turn back immediately.” Commander Dos Santos’ voice rang through on his comm and Keith felt a lurnch in his stomach. This was his first real infraction. And it was a big one.  
  
He should stop. He should turn back. He should alert the faculty and tell them what was happening. But Keith wasn’t thinking. The sun was high in the sky, and the ravine was the place he always wanted to try and fly in and Lance was too tempting and too much of an opportunity to miss.  
  
“Hey! How’d you get your hover to go so fast, cheater?”  
  
Keith exhaled as he let commander Dos Santos’ voice fade away from him. He’d made his choice already.  
  
“Open up a private channel, blue-eyes.”  
  
Second infraction. The staff would know he’d given the codes to Lance. Keith’s radio blipped twice and came to life again.  
  
“Alright, what’s your magic, kiss-ass?”  
  
“S-09X7-G1004”  
  
Keith heard a whoop of delight through his radio and Lance was quickly catching up to him in the rear view of his HUD. Keith strafed sideways to cut Lance off, forcing him to brake short. Lance swore through the private channel. Keith laughed back. Sure, he’d made it fair between them, but he wasn’t going to let this asshole win. Keith merely wanted a challenge.  
  
They hit the ravine at nearly the exactly same time, with Keith only slightly ahead of Lance. This was fine for a few hundred meters, but the gorge was quickly closing in, as high rock walls and thin pillars littered the narrow ravine. Keith scanned the flashing signals on his HUD as he drove into the tight valley.  
  
One wrong move and they’d both be killed.  
Perfect.  
  
Keith’s mind was flying and his blood was surging in his veins. This was better than anything he’d ever felt before! Faster and faster, left and right he swerved, up and over a sudden boulder, air kicking up under him and Lance constantly on his tail, buffeting him from behind.  
  
He was better than Keith anticipated. He thought he’d just let the other boy tail him for a little while, then turn around and take over when Lance got lost or scared. But he wasn’t backing down. Move for move, as Keith navigated the hairpin turns of the sandy gorge, Lance was right behind him, and he certainly wasn’t shutting up about any of it.  
  
“Ooh, Nice turn, kiss-ass, almost clipped your wing, there.”  
  
Keith was starting to get a headache from the constant, screaming alarm, the fuzzy voice of the commander and Lance coming in loud and clear and highly irritating.  
  
“You can give me advice when you’re in the lead, rookie,” he barked back, and Keith hammered a turn so hard his ship groaned under the G-force.  
  
“Fine!”  
  
That wasn’t the answer he expected. Keith felt the vibrations ringing through his entire body as Lance’s hovercraft roared into acceleration, attempting to overtake him from above. This was a dangerous move considering how narrow the rocky cliffs were overhead. Lance was coming down hard, trying to force Keith behind him, but he refused to slow down and let Lance take the lead.  
  
They fought like this, Lance overhead navigating the narrow arches of the gorge and Keith taking the ground, skimming the dust and blocking Lance from below, until the ravine started closing in, ending in a wall of red layered rock and an entrance narrow enough for only one ship.  
  
They were heading towards the tunnel.  
  
This was where the fourth-year students had their practical exams for delicate navigational flight. A first-year student shouldn’t be anywhere near this area, much less in a fully activated Garrison hovercraft speeding towards an entrance barely large enough to scrape by at leisurely pace.  
  
“Get back!” shouted Lance, “I need to get back on the ground!”  
  
They were less than a hundred meters away.  
  
“No!” Keith growled into their private channel, “Head back and get on my tail, chaser! You tried to overtake and I wouldn’t let you!”  
  
50 meters. Lance was shifting from side to side, unable to make his decision.  
  
“I’m gonna crash into the wall!”  
  
40 meters. Keith was not slowing down. He wasn’t going to lose this game of chicken.  
  
“Then do it! Not my problem!”  
  
They were both going to crash, and yet Keith couldn’t stop. He was accelerating towards the edge of the tunnel, still trying to keep Lance from dropping in front of him so that Keith would fall back behind into a tailing position. 30 meters until the tunnel entrance. Warning alarms blared in his craft and Dos Santos was shouting at him to slow down. Keith ignored them both.  
  
20 meters.  
  
The engine gave an unfamiliar groan. Keith pushed it harder. But the controls weren’t responding. His ship gave a kick and drooped in the air, skimming just above the ground. He was losing his edge over Lance somehow, and Keith was starting to panic. But one look onto his dash navigation showed that Lance was no longer above him. He was drifting down, behind him and off to the side. His engines had stopped. And now, so had Keith’s.  
  
The alarms shut off, and so did the nav display. Keith’s ears were buzzing.  
  
“Cadets, you have been ordered to stop all motor vehicles. Your craft have been disabled. Remain inside until Galaxy Garrison personnel have reached your position.”  
  
Shit.  
  
Keith’s hovercraft slowly drifted to a slow stop just outside the tunnel entrance, and Lance was already climbing out of the cockpit of his ship and stomping towards him.  
  
“You cut me off! You could have killed me!”  
  
Keith had nothing to say. His brain was fried and his hands were shaking and the staff were coming to get them and now they were both going to be expelled.  
  
“Did you hear me? You almost got us both killed!”  
  
Lance was saying words, but they were just noise against Keith’s ears. It was stupid. He let his brain go and now he’d never be a pilot. What brought him to this? Why did this kid’s blue eyes and sneering attitude get to him so?  
  
Keith sat back in the seat of his cockpit as Lance rapped angrily on the plexi window, trying to get his attention. Nothing mattered anymore.

* * *

  
  
“That was completely unacceptable, what you did that day. However,” said Shiro, closing the door to Keith’s dorm and pulling out his desk chair to sit down, “I talked to commanders Dos Santos and Iverson, and they’ve agreed to keep you on as a cadet, but on the condition that you are no longer allowed practical training for the rest of your first year. Maybe more.”  
  
“Why not just expel me? I broke every rule in the book.”  
  
He was trying so hard not to cry. He wasn’t expelled. He was still a cadet!  
  
“They were considering that, Keith,” and Shiro’s somber voice became a little lighter, “Until I brought them the recorded flight analysis from your ship.”  
  
Keith looked up at Shiro’s proud smile. The flight text? How did that save his ass?  
  
“Your recorded reaction time is off the charts. You did that run at top speed better than some fourth-years. The Garrison would be missing an opportunity if they let you go.”  
  
Shiro paused, looking at him from his desk chair as Keith sat numbly on the bed. His smile was gone, replaced by brotherly concern.  
  
“Keith, you have a gift. Don’t waste it on getting into contests and fights.”  
  
Keith nodded. It was stupid, what he did. He let Lance taunt him into showing off and breaking rules when he was supposed to be an upstanding member of Galaxy Garrison. He was supposed to be like Shiro. Not like blue-eyes.  
  
“So what do I do when that creepy Lance guy keeps staring at me? Or…” Keith stopped himself, a little afraid to say it out loud, “Did he get booted?”  
  
“He’s fine, Keith. He got the same result as you.” Shiro stood up and went to sit beside keith on the bed, placing a firm hand on his shoulder, “But I want you to focus, Keith. Don’t worry about his issues. Keep your focus on your schoolwork and stay patient. Patience yields focus.”  
  
Keith sighed, feeling the weight of the results start to hit him. He was still a cadet, but he was grounded for the rest of the year. He was still a cadet. He would still be able to fly. Later. In the future. At some point.  
  
“They’re going to officially announce your punishment tonight in Iverson’s office. Don’t sweat it too much. Just stay calm and accept what they say and get some rest. You have class tomorrow. Everything’s gonna be ok.”  
  
Shiro smiled at him as he left the room and closed the door. Keith collapsed onto his bed, too wound up to sleep.

* * *

  
  
Keith and Lance didn’t speak for the rest of their first year. Keith dove tirelessly into his work, studying to the best of his ability the piloting manuals and flight plans that his classes loaded him with. Since he was disqualified from any practical flight training, he was loaded down with extra bookwork and time in the hangar helping the upper level engineering students clean and repair the ships.  
  
And always, always, Keith could feel Lance’s eyes on the back of his neck. Watching, waiting, ready to pounce at the next opportunity to show him up.  
  
Shiro kept telling him he was being an idiot.  
  
That was, before Shiro disappeared.


End file.
